Zalim Bifov’s UAE 1000 Guineas (Listed) winner Silva will take another step in her next start, according to conditioner Pia Brandt. The Group 3-winning bay filly will head to the Southern California for a two-race campaign that will include either the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (2000m, Nov. 2) or Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes (1600m, Nov 3) at Santa Anita Park before a tilt at the Grade 1 Matriarch (1600m, Dec. 1) at Del Mar Racetrack.
“She is doing quite well and we have her back in form,” Brandt said. “At the moment, she is 50-50 between the Goldikova and the Breeders’ Cup. After that we will likely stay for another Grade 1, the Matriarch. I like international racing if you have the right horse for it.
“There are very good horses in the (Breeders’ Cup) and obviously (heavy favourite) Sistercharlie,” she continued. “While it absolutely depends on the pace, my filly is quite handy in the race and the (2000m) distance will be no problem at all for her. In Dubai, winning the Guineas, she was in front early and quick out (of the gate). Then we had a terrible draw in the Oaks and she took up a little bit too much.”
It has been a globetrotting year for the daughter of Kodiac. The Irish-bred commenced the season riding high off a conditions win in December over the Deauville all-weather and showed up at the Dubai World Cup Carnival as an intriguing 3-year-old from capable connections. She proceeded to decimate local fillies in her first try on dirt, the aforementioned UAE 1000 Guineas, winning by nearly double-digit lengths and shocking subsequent UAE Oaks (G3) and Al Bastakiya (Listed) winner Divine Image.
Things did not go so swimmingly afterward for the bay filly, as she was eighth of 11 in the Oaks and did not race again during the DWC Carnival. Always regarded highly, she was next seen attempting Group 1 company for the first time in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas), but trailed virtually throughout.
On the shelf again, she returned in August on the Deauville grass and was a good fourth over a mile of very soft going in the Prix de Lieurey (G3), vastly outrunning her 50-1 odds. In the process, she lost by one length and finished vying with highly regarded fillies Fount, Twist ‘N’ Shake and Commes.
Last out, she came bursting back to form with a two-length, gate-to-wire win over well-intended John Gosden trainee Duneflower and recent G1 performer Spirit of Nelson in the Prix Bertrand de Tarragon (G3). Said 1800m victory over older fillies and mares gave Brandt the confidence to step her up once again.
“We had a little issue after she won at Meydan in the 1000 guineas and couldn’t really get her back as she was before the race and it was very irritating,” Brandt explained. “That’s why she ran bad in the Oaks. She had a bad post outside, also. When we ran her in the French 1000 Guineas, she didn’t perform at all and after that she took it quite easy (during the summer). Now she’s okay and she’s back (to form). Her win was very good and she really had to run.
“She is leaving the 26th and will do her work at home before that,” she continued. “She has had a long season and is (fit). We will decide on the race then.”
Brandt’s lone Breeders’ Cup starter was flashy grey mare L’amour de Ma Vie, a three-time DWC Carnival runner who won the 2014 Balanchine (G2) over 1900m on turf. She would go on later that season to finish 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) behind Untapable. She was ridden by Maxime Guyon, who most likely will have the mount on Silva.
“That time, we ran on the dirt and didn’t run the filly for the filly; more for Santa Anita,” she said, implying that she would have, in hindsight, preferred to run in the next-day Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) or Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1). “(Like L’Amour de Ma Vie), Silva has a lot of experience with knowing how to travel and be abroad. Dubai probably helped her (with that).
“She’s a small filly, but she has such a big heart and good mind,” Brandt concluded. “She can handle all that pressure. That will help us.”
Brandt also confirmed that she is hoping to send “a few” horses to the 2020 DWC Carnival.
WATSON EXCITED FOR NEW SEASON, TRAINEES
After more than a quarter-century in Dubai, six-time UAE champion trainer Doug Watson still gets excited this time of year, especially with the UAE flat season commencing at Meydan Racecourse for the first time on October 24. The six-time champion trainer exits a good, but not spectacular-by-his-standards season in 2018-19—winning 37 races and finishing third behind Ernst Oertel and Satish Seemar—and appears keenly focused to set out for lucky number seven in 2019-20.
“I’m really looking forward to it and I always do, but this year we have some excellent returning older horses and some good young ones,” Watson said. “We will have our big horses like Muntazah (pictured above with Watson), Kimbear and Drafted back in the barn, but also picking up some good American horses like (multiple G3 winner) Switzerland and (G2-placed stakes winner) All Out Blitz.
“Some of our 2-year-olds are very exciting,” he continued. “We picked up one in the (Racing in Dubai) Sale named Welcome Surprise and have 11 unraced ones who will hopefully be ready soon. We had a Munnings colt trial who looks like a nice one named Cosmo Kramer. It was a little sooner than we wanted to, but hopefully the trial helps him get ready for a race. It should get him pretty close to running six furlongs (on opening day) and he will work this week. I also have nice fillies by Candy Ride and Honor Code, a Tapiture colt and a Stay Thirsty colt who seems to work well.
“We look forward to them. You have to imagine for 14 years or so we would only get a couple 2-year-olds and couldn’t really compete in those bigger races like the (UAE) Derby, but now we’re at a point where you think you have a shot at those. It’s exciting to have them and the older horses at the same time.”
While it might not have been a vintage Watson year in 2018-19, he did earn about $3.2 million in prize money for his Red Stables, which was more than the championship seasons of 2017-18 and 2016-17. He will be looking to meet and exceed seasons like that of the 2015-16, when he won at a 19% clip, hit the board 44% of the time and earned in excess of $3.7 million. That, of course, was the year the two-time winner of the Godolphin Mile finished an unforgettable 1-2-3 in the 1600m seven-figure affair with One Man Band, Faulkner and Cool Cowboy.
“It wasn’t a bad season by any means, it just wasn’t our best season,” Watson said. “We had run so many races the years prior, so some of those horses were up in the handicap and a few came down. Sometimes that’s what it comes down to, but this year we hope to have horses ready to do well. I have 90 in the barn right now and hopefully will have over 100 in the next few weeks. We still have horses coming from Europe and we look forward to going to the October sale.”
While down the line the “best in the barn,” Muntazah, will be aimed at the Dubai World Cup with a DWC Carnival commencement to his campaign, the immediate future has the American expat thrilled to find out if the next version of said track record holder is rising at the right time. No matter what happens in the first flush of the season, history tells us that one can be assured any horse staring through a Watson-white bridle is in with a big chance.
SEVEN MEYDAN RACES UPGRADED FOR 2019-2020
A septet of races have been upgraded for the 2019-2020 season at Meydan Racecourse, including six during the Dubai World Cup Carnival, which commences on January 2, 2020. The honour roll of newly blacktype fixtures starts on opening night with the $175,000 Dubai Racing Club Classic, which will be over 2410m on turf and a chance for both stayers and middle-distance turf horses to commence their seasons, as well as the $175,000 Meydan Challenge over 1400m on turf.
Two weeks later, middle-distance turf runners will once again have a chance to shine in the $175,000 Zabeel Turf over 2000m, a race around one turn with a 1000m (five-furlong) straight into the lone, sweeping bend. Turf sprinters line up in the $175,000 Dubai Dash over 1000m on week four, Jan. 23, while stayers once again take the attention with the $175,000 Meydan Cup one week later over 2180m. Finally, printers stretch out one furlong in the $175,000 Dubai Sprint over 1200m on the sixth week, Feb. 8.
All upgraded DWC Carnival races will have natural progressions into Dubai World Cup night races, while most set up nicely for a run on Super Saturday, Mar. 7. They will all be contested over handicap conditions with a base rating of 95.
Furthermore, the seventh and final upgraded race is for the Purebred Arabians, the 1900m Madjani Stakes on Dec. 19, which is now Listed.
IN BRIEF: The Breeders’ Cup World Championships will have a strong representation of Dubai form on November 2 and 3 at Santa Anita Park, led by Dubai World Cup runners Yoshida and Seeking the Soul, who will compete in the centrepiece affair, the Breeders’ Cup Classic. UAE Derby runner-up Gray Magician is also possible for the Classic, but is under consideration for the Dirt Mile—a race in which Godolphin Mile winner and also-ran, Coal Front and True Timber, are likely to compete. Belvoir Bay and Stormy Liberal, second and third in the Al Quoz Sprint this year, are pointing to the Turf Sprint—which is also on the radar of UAE Derby also-ran Stubbins—while UAE 1000 Guineas winner Silva and Dubai Turf-placed Deirdre are considered possible for Filly & Mare Turf. Deirdre is also possible for the Turf, where she would meet Longines Dubai Sheema Classic winner Old Persian. Another Dubai Turf-placed runner, Lord Glitters, is possible for the Mile, while second- and third-place Dubai Golden Shaheen runners, Matera Sky and Imperial Hint, will head to the Sprint. Additionally, Dubai Turf alum Trais Fluors is listed as possible for the Dirt Mile, while Dubai-owned quartet of Line of Duty (Mile), Maxfield (Juvenile), Fair Maiden (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Lazuli (Juvenile Sprint) are possible… In Australia, Saturday is a big day for Dubai interests, as Dubai Gold Cup (G2) alums Prince of Arran, a DWC Carnival winner, and Gold Mount line up in the G1 Caulfield Cup over 2400m, while Godolphin’s Royal Meeting runs in the race immediately preceding, the G3 Moonga Stakes.